Edwards snares second pole at Autobahn

This morning the Atlantic Championship held its qualifying session
for the second race of its weekend here at the Autobahn Country Club.
For the first time John Edwards' supremacy atop the time sheets was
threatened, but not eclipsed.
When all...

This morning the Atlantic Championship held its qualifying session
for the second race of its weekend here at the Autobahn Country Club.
For the first time John Edwards' supremacy atop the time sheets was
threatened, but not eclipsed.

When all was said and done Edwards had emerged with his second pole
of the weekend, and his career for that matter, at a quick time of
2:06.321. His teammate Jonathan Summerton fell just short, but still it
marks the first time Newman Wachs Racing has swept the front row.

"The track was getting faster each lap and then I had a bit of a mistake
on my last lap and the lap was much slower," Edwards admitting he could
have gone quicker. "I was praying that no one was going to go quicker.
Luckily I got my teammate on the last lap by a couple hundredths."

Series points leader Simona de Silvestro third for Team Stargate Worlds,
as the top three separated by all of .069 of a second. Borja Garcia
was fourth with local favorite Tonis Kasemets of nearby Mundelin, Ill.
completing the top five.

In a frantic final few minutes of qualifying Edwards, Summerton, de
Silvestro and series rookies Garcia and Frederic Vervisch each had their
moments at the top of the timesheets. Summerton had the pole, Edwards
beat it and then Summerton came up just shy on his final lap.

De Silvestro reckoned she could score pole and discussed the potential
for passing around the circuit.

"The whole qualifying was weird because of all the water running on the
track," de Silvestro said. "I think we could have had pole because we
caught traffic on our fast lap. We can work towards the front, hope to
finish on podium, maybe win."

Garcia and Vervisch fell to fourth and sixth by the end of the session,
split by Kasemets. Garcia improves from seventh to fourth on the grid.

The remainder of the 11-car field: Markus Niemela, James Winslow, Max
Lefevre, Frankie Muniz and Michael Nacol. Muniz reckoned his car was
quick but the driver wasn't; so props to the actor-turned-racer for
being serious and not providing excuses.

Times were slower by about two seconds from Friday's first round on
account of heavy overnight rains. The conditions wiped out all the
rubber from the eight series running here this weekend and flooded the
track in some parts, according to track officials.

A particular rough spot was a stream running across turns 8 and 9 of
the 19-turn, 3.56-mile road course. It made keeping heat in the tires a
challenge.

"Of course we had that stream running across 8 and 9, your tires get
up to temps and then they cool right back off," Summerton said of the
conditions. "It takes another half a lap warming them up."

Tomorrow's second Atlantic Championship race rolls off at 2:05 p.m.
local time, same as today's first race. Both rounds six and seven are
televised live on HDNet this weekend.